Paddington in Peru (2025) review

Dir. Dougal Wilson

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★

Where some mediocre movies are a joy to dissect as opposed to watch, it gives me absolutely no satisfaction to say Paddington in Peru is already on the shortlist for most disappointing movies of the year.

The Paddington film series has been something of a revelation from the beginning. In late 2014, Paul King’s initially unassuming adaptation of the titular bear from Michael Bond’s children’s stories turned out to be a whimsical delight. Fueled by kinetic energy that stemmed from Paddington’s desire to assimilate to London culture, the film was made even more enjoyable thanks to the chemistry amongst the Brown family, who brought the bear into their home. Paddington 2 was not only the rare sequel that was better than the original, but it’s literally gone on to be one of the most-acclaimed movies of all-time.

Expecting Paddington in Peru to improve upon what was already inconceivable territory for a film series about a talking bear is unfair. However, seeing it drastically deviate from the formula of its predecessors to give us a derivative, swashbuckling adventure movie effectively squanders so much of the visual and narrative beauty of the series. Furthermore, a third act that presents us with Paddington coming face-to-face with his origins suggests the real story for a sequel was hiding in plain sight all along. It’s too bad we had to take the long way to get there.

Early into the film, Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishaw) receives word from Reverend Mother (Olivia Colman) at the Home for Retired Bears that his beloved Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton) has been acting strangely and missing him terribly. In a flash, the bear and the Brown family — led by Hugh Bonneville’s risk-adverse Henry and his wife Mary (Emily Mortimer, replacing series mainstay Sally Hawkins) — bolt for South America. There’s barely enough time for Paddington to tell us any updates about the Brown family via voiceover, expect for the fact that they don’t seem to spend as much time together as a family anymore.

When they arrived in Peru, Reverend Mother informs them that Aunt Lucy has gone missing, possibly in search of treasure in the jungle. Paddington and the Browns hitch a boat-ride from a guide named Cabot (Antonio Banderas), who has his greedy eyes set on gold. In search of the lost city of El Dorado, one of Cabot’s colonialist ancestors (also Banderas) continues to pop up in a way that falls gravely short of what Jim Carrey managed in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 whilst handling dual roles. Meanwhile, Mrs. Bird (Julie Walters) remains at the Home for Retired Bears, where Reverend Mother assures her with a smile that nothing suspicious is happening.

Paddington in Peru is without its chief purveyor of whimsy in director Paul King, who has been replaced with music video director Dougal Wilson making his cinematic debut. A tall order for anyone, yes, and while Wilson doesn’t make any serious missteps, gone is King’s astute, Wes Anderson-esque framing and beautifully tailored sets, which looked like dioramas.

It was clear that Paddington was right at home in London, able to inhale marmalade sandwiches, mingle with locals, and succeed at various odd jobs around the city. Transporting him to the jungle increases the size of the bear’s playground, but almost entirely absent are those notable set-pieces, such as Paddington flooding the family bathroom or cooking up marmalade sandwiches in the prison kitchen. Outside of one briskly paced scene involving Paddington captaining an unmanned boat, the jungle swallows him and the Brown family whole.

Speaking of which, the Brown family has nothing meaningful to do and no room for growth. It was certainly a decision made by the trio of screenwriters (Mark Burton, Jon Foster, and James Lamont) to keep Jonathan (Samuel Joslin) and Judy (Madeleine Harris) silent warm bodies for much of the movie. Jonathan has resorted to chillin’ (the “g” is silent) and Judy is mulling over which university to attend. Neither conflict has any bearing on the story. Both could’ve if we weren’t romping through the jungle for 75-exhaustive minutes before arriving at a third act that suggests what the movie should’ve been about.

Not helping matters either is the fact that the humor just doesn’t land. Visual gags and clever bits of dialog are replaced with adventure and needless exposition. Instead of Paddington struggling with the idea of having two distinctly different homes, we get a mush-mouth Banderas going all Scrooge McDuck over gold and his daughter (Carla Tous) whining about her daddy issues. Colman’s role grows as the movie marches on, but even she doesn’t have the impact of Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant.

Paddington in Peru had the opportunity to pull off the rare hat-trick for a trilogy. Instead, it’s the equivalent of a TV special that thinks whisking the characters away to a far-away place will immediately ignite a comic spark. The problem? There was never a comic spark that needed to be ignited with this series. It was simply there to keep burning, but instead finds itself extinguished, in this case by unforgiving Amazonian waters.

My review of Paddington (2014)
My review of Paddington 2

Starring: Hugh Bonneville, Emily Mortimer, Madeleine Harris, Samuel Joslin, Julie Walters, Olivia Colman, Antonio Banderas, Carla Tous. Voiced by: Ben Whishaw and Imelda Staunton. Directed by: Dougal Wilson.